


The Weight of the World

by SophusMao



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dragon Age: Inquisition Spoilers, F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:29:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27163205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophusMao/pseuds/SophusMao
Summary: Retelling of Dragon Age: Inquisition. I might diverge from canon slightly in some parts and I'll add my own spin on things where I think it makes sense.I started this romance pairing years ago in my short Falling Damage, so I'm just expanding on it to make it a full story.I haven't written in years so I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to provide constructive criticism where you see the need to.
Relationships: Female Inquisitor/Iron Bull, The Iron Bull/Female Lavellan (Dragon Age)
Comments: 5





	The Weight of the World

She had been ordered to stay down the mountain at the first outpost on the bridge. Every group that attended had people here and Cassandra needed to keep the peace. In the hours that had passed since the first groups had followed the Divine up the mountain, she had handed out hot soups to guard against the biting cold, helped a lost child find their mother, broken up a few squabbles between varying factions, and helped build more shelters as more folk arrived. They would not be able to ascend the Frostbacks until the morning, so in the meantime she made sure she had everyone's names for the records and got them settled. They had chosen to make the first outpost here because the bridge was the starting point to the only safe route up to the temple. The Left Hand and her scouts would deal with anyone who tried to go around.

While this post was grating on her nerves, used to being more proactive and dealing with threats as she was, it was necessary. It helped quell the more questionable types aiming to cause trouble at the talks. It also, in a less foreseen benefit, allowed the people from separate factions to talk and interact before it was their turn to be shown the path up. Cassandra had seen the haughty dalish elves, usually closed off from the rest of society, talk with humans. Apostate mages queued with Templars for a warm meal, commoners shared a fire with snobbish nobles, and even a few Qunari were present accepting the questions from the few children there. All this for the chance to hear the Divine speak and the hopeful end to the rising tensions and growing Mage-Templar war after Kirkwall.

She was there now, the Divine with the leaders of the different groups, making ready the rebuilt Temple of Sacred Ashes, rediscovered during the Blight. If Cassandra squinted, she could see it, a stained glass window reflecting the sunset or a brazier being lit. A few more days and this would be over. There would be peace.

***

It was late now and Cassandra entered the tent she shared with her talkative prisoner. Varric sat, legs crossed, with parchment and quill in hand, “Ah, Seeker” He called in his usual jovial and grating tone, “Finished taking the names of every Hedge Mage and child?” He smirked and it annoyed her.

“You know full well why I need to record which people came-”

“Yes, yes. I know Seeker,” His quill carried on scratching.

“If you have something to say, Varric, just say it.”

A loud boom echoed around them, followed shortly by a shockwave that rattled the ground beneath their feet and made the tent sway. Then the screams began. Cassandra and Varric shared a quick glance and rushed out, in her mind, Cassandra merely believed that a mage or Templar had lost their temper but that belief was quickly quelled. People were running back toward Haven, the nearby village, children tripping and quickly being scooped up by whichever adult was nearby. Tents, fires, possessions, all trampled beneath the stampede of scared folk and through it all, a slowly building green hue began to glint of armour and weapons. She looked up, and for the first time in a long time, she felt the tendrils of fear grip her.  
There, hanging in the sky above where the Temple sat, was a crack that slowly slowly began to grow. A sickly green light barely bleeding through. She grabbed a passing soldier by the elbow, “Get a force together to help the people back to Haven and find the Nightingale!” the man nodded, jaw set with a purpose and began hollering to people, his voice fading away as he moved.

“Seeker! We have to help the people!” Varric pulled his crossbow and stood by her side.

“I know, follow me.” She began to move through the panic, gently holding the people that ran into her and allowing them to pass. Her sharp eyes darting from the sky to the bridge, she saw scouts there and hoped Leliana would be there too. 

A bald elf bumped into her as he ran to the bridge. She sped up to catch him, to direct him away and towards the Village but he moved fast and made it to the bridge first. He stepped onto the low stone wall there and directed his face up to the green light. She frowned as she approached, but a lithe black form reached the elf first and grabbed the back of his cloth and fur outfit, dragging him down onto the bridge proper. A thick Orlesian accent bit out at him, orange hair peeking out from a black hood “Who are you mage, do you know what that light is?” She didn’t shout, Leliana didn’t need to shout.

Cassandra approached, the cacophony of stampeding people dying down as soldiers ran them back to Haven. She frowned at the only elf left behind as he gained his footing and straightened his collar, “I am Solas, and I believe that is the Fade.” He said it so matter of factly that Cassandra almost believed him. Instead she just scoffed and held out her hand toward the elf. He watched her with a small look of puzzlement before sighing and handing over his staff.

Leliana gently tapped Cassandra’s elbow and bobbed her head for the Seeker to follow, “We must get to the Temple, if that explosion rocked the ground here, I worry what it has done further up the mountain. I have sent scouts already but I would like to see for myself.”

Cassandra thought for a moment before nodding, “Agreed, we should post our people along the way to help any stragglers on the mountain. Meet me at the end of the bridge shortly.” Leliana walked briskly away to gather her people and assigned them orders as Cassandra turned to strange elf and talkative dwarf, “You two will stay here, direct whatever people who come through down to the village.” Varric nodded and she began to turn when the elf stepped up beside her.

“I believe I can help up the mountain, you will need a mage-”

“I said stay here, there are already mages at the Temple,” She glanced up but the green light distorted her vision, “I also do not trust you.” She stomped away toward the other side of the bridge without waiting for a reply. Leliana was already there, watching scouts and soldiers spread out to do their duty, she nodded as Cassandra approached and they began the ascent up the mountain.

***

The green crack sputtered a few times during the few hours that they spent half running up the path. It grew larger with every passing minute. Cassandra began to comment on this to Leliana when a scout whistled and pointed up the path.  
A small group was approaching them, dressed in the colours of Leliana’s men, the scouting party she had sent earlier plus a few men sent to watch the path the day before. They looked tired and sad and scared, emotions they had been trained to hide plain on their faces. They carried someone in a makeshift stretcher, “Lady Nightingale,” a scout approached, terror clear in his dark eyes, “We must get off the mountain!” the other scouts around him clasped their fists over their hearts, the stretcher between them, “A Breach is in the sky over where the Temple used to be, we found-”

Leliana cut him off, “What do you mean ‘where the Temple used to be’?”, she glanced down at the small form in the stretcher, dark hair peeking out from a thin blanket that covered it.

“The Temple is gone ma’am, our men on the path saw it happen. They said an explosion from inside took the structure down and then the Breach cracked open,” he looked down at the stretcher as Cassandra stepped forward in disbelief, “They went inside and...no one was alive ma’am, they searched for the Most Holy and instead found a, a hole in the air with a glowing woman pushing this one through.”

Leliana looked at the scouts, some with soot and ash coating their hoods, dark shadows under their too wide eyes, “Did you find-” One of the scouts shook and knelt before the stretcher, hands collapsed before her face.

“Oh Andraste, hear me.” She began to mutter by the unconscious form. Then, the Breach sputtered again, and the form moved, crying out in their sleep.

“Cassandra, we must go down. The Temple is gone.” Leliana looked to the Right Hand who was looking up to where the Temple used to be, her face full of conflicting emotions. Terror, sadness, anger, disbelief. She wasn’t listening. Leliana grabbed her elbow and turned her people down the path, her own emotions raging inside. Thankfully, descending the mountain was quicker than climbing it. She listened to her scout report what they saw at the Temple as they walked, she’ll have to send fresh people to the Temple to corroborate their story. She trusted her people but what they were saying was so peculiar and it was difficult to pay proper attention with the occasional cry of pain from the stretcher.

They made it to the bridge without incident, Varric and the elf stood together in silence only looking up as the group approached. The elf stepped forward, brow furrowed and slate eyes on the stretcher. The scouts lowered it gently as the person moaned once again with the sky, Solas approached and pulled the thin fabric away revealing the person there.  
She was elvhen, dark haired with a smattering of freckles dotting whatever skin they could see, markings on her face stood out a deep black against the very pale skin . She wore dalish leathers, trimmed in fur and torn at the seams on one arm. A green glow from her hand flared as the Breach flickered again. Tendrils of green climbing up her arm seemed to crack her skin as she cried out again.

“She’s dying but I can help,” Solas looked to Cassandra who was looking at the injured girl with barely hidden fury, “Seeker, I need my staff.” He held his hand out as she had done to him earlier.

Cassandra levelled her gaze at him, “Oh? And how do we not know that she is the cause of this? And you, you seemed unsurprised when this happened, you could be with her with this.” Her hand lingered by her sheathed sword, ready to draw it.

Leliana stepped between the two, “Cassandra, we need her alive. We need answers.” Cassandra looked toward where the Temple should be and scowled, the frown deep as she muttered to herself before she took the staff from her back and handed it over to the Hedge mage. He nodded his thanks and knelt before the unconscious body.

They all watched him as he studied the smaller elf. He lifted her arm with the green glow and frowned before saying, “Yes I can help.” He muttered and cast for nearly an hour, sweat beading on his brow. Cassandra watched intently as, slowly, the green tendrils climbing up the arm of the girl began receding. She couldn’t tell what the mage was saying but it seemed to be working. Eventually, he stopped, breathing heavy and Cassandra stood. The Breach expanded again, it was now a swirling green hole in the sky and the girls arm flared once more, “My magic won’t keep it stable for long-”  
As the elf spoke, green fire coating black meteors fell from the sky. They pummeled the mountainside and in the distance, they could hear the screech of demons. A green glow appeared up the way by an old crumbled fort, “Seeker, the hole in the sky leads to the Fade, whatever happened has torn a hole in the Veil.”

Cassandra felt the hair on her neck stand on end as another screech echoed down to them, “Varric, Solas, stay with the soldiers and help where you can, we will take the girl to the Chantry at Haven.”

“Seeker! She may be able to help-” The elf began.

“Take her to the Chantry. Now.” The scouts from the Temple path lifted the stretcher as others turned toward the old fort, waiting for the elf and dwarf to follow.

“Well, shit.” Varric muttered as he knocked a bolt in his crossbow.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think so far :)


End file.
